Kate McKinnon’s Top 10 Saturday Night Live Moments
From Hillary Clinton to a Globfish Mermaid, Kate Can Do It All
“She is perhaps the most gifted of a gifted generation of young comics. Her flair for mimicry and slapstick allows her to create characters and impressions that are both spookily exact and totally off the wall.” (Lily Anolik for Vanity Fair)
As of late there has been an influx of budding female comedians gaining attention from the popular media. For example, Amy Schumer, Lena Dunham, Kristen Schaal, and Sarah Silverman have become household names. Even women who have created substantial comedic careers are just now getting the recognition they deserve, such as Amy Poehler, Ellie Kemper, and Mindy Kaling. While these women may all be hilarious in their own way I feel that there is one woman that stands out against them all, Kate McKinnon. Her flair and ability to completely transform into the character she is embodying is unlike what any other female comedian, or any other SNL cast member has ever done before. Says Lorne Michaels for Vanity Fair, “Kate can embody a character and bring it to life and make it funny. But there’s also always something empathetic about her characters. And although the writing might not be kind, she is. That’s her genius. You can’t make the audience fall in love with a character you don’t like.”
I like to think of McKinnon as 2016–2017’s “First Lady of Comedy.” Not only can she take on the persona of quite literally anyone, male or female, she can also use parts of herself to create the exact identity she wants the audience to see. Her ability to build a sketch that everyone watching can relate to while also becoming completely encompassed by the character she has so masterfully built is why Kate takes the cake in the past year of comedy. You can see these skills beautifully and hilariously played out in her and Aidy Bryant’s self-written sketch “Dyke and Fats.”
10. “Dyke and Fats”
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Kate McKinnon is Saturday Night Live’s first openly lesbian member of the cast. Kate keeps her personal life extremely private but when you take her sexual orientation into consideration it makes this sketch just that much better. The sketch is a fake movie trailer for a classic duo cop movie. Les “Dyke” Dykawitz, played by Kate McKinnon, alongside her partner is defeating crime, Chubbina “Fats” Fatsarelli, played by Aidy Bryant, use this sketch to take back the words that could easily be used to offend them. The moment that makes this sketch such an iconic moment in Kate’s career takes place in the last 15 seconds of it. Kate and Aidy both react when the host of the episode, John Cena, calls the cops “Broads”. “Really? We’re back to the women thing?” The way Kate uses what makes her unique on the cast of SNL and uses reappropreation to bring humor to the sketch is what makes the sketch number 10 on the list of, the first lady of comedy her self’s, top 10 sketches of the year.
9. Somebody’s Mom
This sketch is one that every viewer can relate to in one way or another. In this sketch Kate plays Dennie, “Somebody’s Mom”, a fiery old woman who wears awful sweaters and eats leftovers of who knows what out of tupper wear containers. The vibrant character was brought onto Colin Jost “Weekend Update” to talk about her thoughts on the recent show “The People v. O.J.” however, rather than using the character’s real names she goes on tangents and refers to people as “mustache” and “show me the money.” Kates ability to create such a universal character that makes you think of the “Dennie” in your own life, rather than the actress under the sweater, is part of what makes her such a talented comedian. It is also what gives Dennie the award of 9th place on this top 10 list that I’m sure the tangent-seeking mom could talk about for hours.
8. Justin Bieber (Calvin Klein)
McKinnon once revealed the secret to her killer Justin Bieber impression on Conan: “It’s looking like a puppy who just piddled and is sort of sorry about it.” Justin is originally known for having a boyish charm that made all the 13-year-old girls swoon. He then went through a bad boy phase, got tatted up, killer abs, and broke some rules, all in an attempt to trash his title of the past. Kate did a perfect job of taking this chain of events and playing into the singer’s deepest fear. Kate took Bieber’s Calvin Klein ad (that was a step in the direction towards being a “big boy”) and drew it back to his biggest insecurity, the boyish image he has tried so hard to run from. Her ability to physically and emotionally transform into a teenage heart throb and turning him into a child at heart is what makes this sketch number 8 on Kate’s top 10 sketches.
7. Shud the Globfish Mermaid
First being introduced to two beautiful mermaids just makes Kate McKinnon’s character “Shud” that much more hilarious. You’re telling me you wouldn’t be ecstatic to find out your mermaid is one that has two mouths? “One for breathing and one for food absorption.” Not only does the makeup and costume make this sketch so iconic, but also Kate’s ability to transform her mannerisms and voice as well. She keeps a somewhat crouched over posture, while the other mermaids sit straight up, her voice is a bit raspy and manly, while the other mermaids have high pitched feminine voices, and she is just straight up appalling. I mean come on, “This chick takes dumps out of her mouth!” While Kate is best known for her celebrity impersonations I feel as though this sketch uses a unique approach in utilizing her ability to shape shift, figuratively and literally.
6. Betsy Devos
Kate’s role as President Trumps nominee for education secretary, Betsy Devos, first appears alongside a sketch where Melissa McCarthy plays White House press secretary Sean Spicer. Kate is able to portray a ditsy politician without relying purely on feminine, airhead stereotypes. This is a large part of why I feel this impersonation deserves number 6 of Kate’s top 10. She creates an out of place, confused, and charismatic woman who knows that she knows nothing, rather than an air-head who has no clue of what is going on. While this impersonation was short lived, now that Betsy has been confirmed as education secretary I anticipate many more arising top ten Kate moments.
5. Themyscira
This sketch is a hilarious take on gay stereotypes taking place on the island Themyscira as seen in the newest block buster Wonder Woman. Kate plays a fragile and nerdy looking lesbian alongside a masculine woman with a strange hair cut played by Aidy Bryant. The two find themselves on an island full of only beautiful women and are shocked to find out none of these Amazonians’ bat for their team. This sketch just gets even worse for the two lesbians as they continue to search for at least one gay woman on the island. What makes Kate’s character so funny is the fact that she’s so Kate. She is normally known for ditching her true self and throwing herself into the character she is taking, however, in this sketch you can tell she is Kate McKinnon. She digs into herself to find a hilarious lesbian stereotype that feels like she’s “in a porn but the plumber is genuinely there to fix the pipes.”
4. Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Kate starts this sketch off strong by pouring an entire packet of Vitamin C into her mouth. Her take on the Supreme Court justice, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, creates a lively, liberal grandmother figure who is not going down without a fight. She’s “eating an apple a day to keep Ben Carson away.” This sketch makes takes a recent political story and turns it into something anyone can find funny. Kate has the ability to make an 84-year-old politician seem like someone you want to party with. She takes political issues facing our society and turns them into grandmotherly jokes in which this skeleton of a woman gets up and dances to as if she were a young college student in a club, because “that’s a ginsBURN!”
3. Kellyanne Conway (A Day Off)
No one is exactly sure what persona Kellyanne Conway is trying to take on but in any form Kate is able to bring her to life in an SNL skit. In this portrayal Kellyanne is a care free woman trying to enjoy her day “walking on sunshine.” However, this day gets interrupted time and time again. What makes Kate’s performance as Kellyanne so iconic is in her physical and personality traits. In her interview scenes, Kate makes sure that her eyes are slightly squinted, her makeup and hair are a bit of a mess, and her head moves around, a lot. Along with these spot-on similarities, Kate also creates a sense of anger in her character that we can all only imagine Kellyanne would feel in real life for her boss’s continuous outburst, to which she responds with the most ridiculous webs of lies. “Of course Mr. Trump thinks Mexicans can read, and actually, what he wants them to read the most is Hillary Clinton’s 33,000 missing e-mails.”
2. Hillary Clinton (Bar Talk)
Kate is not the first Saturday Night Live comedian to portray the iconic Hillary Clinton. Jan Hooks was first, creating a fiery, somewhat unlikeable Clinton. Hooks chose to focus on Hillary as the president at the time, Bill Clinton’s wife and side-kick. (“I happen to be the co-president of the United States”). Next it was Amy Poehler’s turn. Poehler took on the persona of Obama’s cold rival. A tired and fed up version that felt much too villainous. Kate’s Hillary, however, is unlike anything either of those two could have ever created. Kate’s Hillary has her hard-driving bitch side to be sure, but rather than just that she creates a woman with the best of both worlds. She creates a Hillary with drive and ambition mixed with a self conscious politician just trying to make her way to the top. Seeing Kate create such a perfect cocktail of personality traits alongside the woman herself is what makes this unforgettable sketch number 2 on the top 10 Kate McKinnon sketches of the year.
1. Jeff Sessions (Forrest Gump)
The connection between Forrest Gump and Jeff Sessions in this sketch is so perfectly displayed. Kate shows us the slimy elf version of Jeff Sessions that is in the undertone of all that he does, while also somehow making you want to say “awe.” She takes very clear stabs at the politicion in this sketch with quotes such as “I never talked to any Russians ever.” followed by “I talked to the Russians.” However, paired with the background music and Forrest Gump theme they seem like light hearted fun. Not only does Kate find a way to make you hate this man, she also somehow finds a way to make you kind of want to give him a hug. Her ability to create a sense of empathy and pathos in all her characters, especially Jeff Sessions, is part of what makes Kate such an amazing comedian and is why she deserves this year’s title of “First Lady of Comedy.”
Anolik, Lili, et al. “Cover Story: How S.N.L.’s Kate McKinnon Became Comedy’s Brightest Star.” HWD, Vanity Fair, 27 Sept. 2017, www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/09/kate-mckinnon-cover-story.
“Kate McKinnon.” NBC, www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/cast/kate-mckinnon-15056.